Summer Fun

I can't believe that summer is only a month away. This school year has just flown by. This month I decided to give the homepage contest a try over at the A Muse Addicts website. The theme is "Summer". When I think of summer, I picture frozen drinks by the pool with friends. It just screams relaxing. I hope this summer finds you relaxing and having fun, too.

For this card: Note card, stamp and ribbon from A Muse. Card stock from SU!. Copic markers, scalloped scissors, marvy punch and stickles.

Party Time, part 2

Saturday's parties were a lot of fun. We have been looking forward to my 6 year olds best friend's pirate party for months. I knew that I wanted to make some special paper for him. He and his family are even more pirate obsesed than we are. The party was great and the kids even had a visit from Jack Sparrow.

The paper on the smaller package was very time consuming. I spent a couple of hours just coloring, but the end result was well worth it. In the end it looked like I had bought it. The larger package was stamped with a cute stamp I got in a set from Michael's that says, "A Pirate's Life for Me". The matching card has a bit of the wrapping paper attached to draw all the pieces together. Also, I didn't have any red brads so I colored some silver ones with my red Copic marker and viola! now I had red shimmery ones. How cool is that?

For this project: Kraft wrapping paper from Michael's; Ahoy, Matey stamp set from SU!; paper, brads and ink from SU!; Copic and SU! markers.

Party Time

This weekend was a busy one for my family. We had three birthday parties in two days, as well as a Little League game (our turn for snack, of course) and my husband had to travel to Reno for the State Convention. Which left me all alone to juggle all this and three boys. I do have to say that my boys were so good. They must have realized I might need the extra help. After running all over Saturday we stayed home Sunday to give the house a good "freshening". Normally it is like pulling teeth to get anyone to help me with this, but this time they kept coming up to me asking for more chores and even the older two got into an argument over who was going to take out the trash. Which resulted in the two year old grabbing the box and running out the door to throw it away with the older two close behind. It was quite funny. I'm glad it's back to school today so I can get back to some of the projects I keep putting off, although this week is equally as busy.


Back to the craft as hand... I love when we are invited to something for a girl. I have so many ideas I never get to implement with three boys. I wanted to give it a try making my own wrapping paper and matching card. I love how this turned out. It was so much fun and not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

For the project: white craft paper from Michael's; stamps, ink and paper all from SU!
I cut out one of the butterflies and popped it up in on some dimensionals.

Enjoy!

Bonus: Happy Days

A Bonus challenge from the queen of A Muse, Linda.

Linda chose to inspire us with a word, "Weekend". Our weekends tend to be a bit chaotic. It was always the running joke while my husband and I were dating that we had trouble staying in the county for a whole weekend. Now that we moved to Las Vegas, where seemingly the whole state is one county, we have broken our habit of traveling but not of keeping busy. We run from baseball games, to soccer games, Play dates and parties. But the one thing that seems to dominate a whole day in our weekend is shopping. With three young boys I don't like to shop by myself with them. They like to run in all different directions and are constantly asking me for random stuff. So I save up all the big running around for the weekend when my husband is home and we can tag team the kids. Things always tend to run smoother when there is someone else there watching your back.

Saturday Night Fever!

Last challenge of the night was inspired by John Travolta's suit in Saturday Night Fever! I love the look of white stamped onto black, so I knew this was the way I wanted to go. I decided to use the Fancy Borders set. I placed it in almost a cloud shape and then stamped away. I wanted the look of patterned paper. Add some matting and a couple of white brads and there you go. Simple but clean. Just how I like it.

Do the Hustle

This challenge has got to be one of my favorites. I am a sucker for sketch challenges and this one does not let you down. I loved the simplistic design and will have to try and use it again. Thanks for the great ideas girls. Jennie gave me this coffee set for my birthday and I just love using it. My sister just requested I make her a bunch of card with it to use for her employees as the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

I stamped the beans in Chocolate Chip from SU! on their twill tape and of course colored the cup with Copics.

Disco Ball

The second of challenge of the night. Woo Hoo! To use "old school" glitter. You know what I'm talking about. Not the fun, easy stuff, but the down and dirty all over the house, ground in the carpet, loose glitter. I happen to have only one jar of real glitter and how appropriate for 70"s night, mine was purchased in the 70's. I have this really old jar of aluminum multi colored glitter on my shelf that was given to me in a box of craft stuff when my grandma passed away 6 years ago. I have never used it, I've only kept it this long because I love how old it is. It even has the price tag still on it. After giving it a go, I think I will retire it back to the shelf and continue on with the stickles.

Let it be!

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. My Internet has been spotty and the laptop running slow. Not a good combination. I seem to be running well today, which is a good thing because it's VMAA time. The A Muse Addicts got together last night and had their second virtual meeting. I was in and out due to my husband being out of town at our state convention and so it was up to me to shuttle our kids to a slurry of events this weekend. More on that in later posts.

The first challenge of the night was to create a card with no embellishments. This was actually easier for me because I am embellishmentally challenged. I struggle with what to add and where. Especially all those wonderful prisma flowers I have mocking me on the shelf.

For this card: stamp and note card from A Muse, Copic markers, paper from SU!

A Pirates Life For Me!

I think Pirates have to be one of our favorite subjects in our house. I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, my 6 year old has a pirate bedroom complete with a pirate map I painted on his wall and my youngest even has the nickname of "Pirate Pete". Jennie hosts a great swap I love to participate in where each month has a different theme. The cards that come back are so amazing. I am inspired by them to push myself to think outside of my comfort zone. This month the theme was Kid's or Masculine Birthday cards. These pirates just screamed out to me. What little boy or grown one for that matter doesn't love Pirates. I don't know about you but for me I lean more towards cards that have no sentiment on them. I like the freedom to be able to use the card for anything that might strike my fancy. How about you?

For this card: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Very Vanilla paper, brads and ink all from Stampin' Up!; Stamp from Michael's; Copics for color.

Take a deep breath

Alright, now everyone take a deep breath, hold it and let it out. Doesn't that feel better. Things have been so busy here these last few days. Running from one activity to another, making sure all the homework is done and playing referee. Today was especially fun. My six year old took his little league pictures today. I treasure this small memento of how he's grown and what he has accomplished each season. The grin is always the same though, biggest cheesy smile he can do, face turned up, eyes squinted shut. Such a ham.

I do want to share with you a birthday card I made recently. Don't you just love the polka dots. These notecards have got to be one of best things out there. If you haven't heard of A Muse yet you must drop by and check them out. Not only do they have the wonderful note cards that I used on this card but their stamps are just amazing. And, if you do love A Muse, you should be an Addict. Jennie's weekly challenge over at the A Muse Addicts was to use polka dots on a card. I just love polka dots so I just had to play. I think this one will only be start for me. I feel inspired to think outside the box, so please check back this week and see what I can come up with to enchant you.

Lara

Pick me up

I really like this pick up truck. This is the first time I have actually sat down and used it. I think I might be hooked. A friend of ours is recovering from surgery and I wanted to send him a little cheer. I love this saying and can't wait to try out some other ideas. I always seem to have trouble with boy cards. Maybe it's the lack of girls in my house, but I always seem to lean towards flowers and girly things.

I colored the truck using a combination of Copic markers and SU markers. Paper, stamps, and twine from Stampin'Up.

Use the force...

After much encouragement from my good friend, Jennie, I have entered into the blogging world. I hope you will be enchanted and inspired.

I thought I would start out by sharing one of my all time favorite cards. My oldest son had his eighth birthday recently and has been on a Star Wars fix since Christmas. What would the world be like without the Wii and Star Wars: Lego? In my house probably a lot quieter. So we just had to have a Star Wars party. We had some of his friends over, dressed up like Jedi and made light sabers. Then it was time for me to make Thank you cards. What to do? I seem to have been in a stamping rut lately and just couldn't seem to find inspiration. I decided to ask the boys if they had any ideas. My oldest announces, "How about a Jedi?". A Jedi?, I'm thinking while I stare at my shelf of stamps. Then finally inspiration. I have the cutest Pirate that with some creative coloring would be the perfect Jedi. And it worked! This finally pulled me out of my rut and back into the stamping world.

I hope you will enjoy my creations as much as I enjoy making them.